System allows parents to monitor kids' driving

[Tami]

System allows parents to monitor kids' driving

CTV.ca News Staff

If you're a parent who's hesitant about handing over the car keys to your teen, a company in Vancouver has come up with a tool that may help ease your mind.

LockDown Systems has developed a wireless system to track your children while they're behind the wheel. It's a GPS tracker that allows you to find out where your kids are, whether they're speeding, and even allows you to disable the car from home.

LockDown's Dan Mellor demonstrated the system for Canada AM Wednesday. He says all a parent would need to do when their teen is out driving is log on to the system's website and click on "Track Your Vehicle."

That would send a command to the system's GPS to locate the client's car. Within two minutes, the longitude and latitude of the car's location would be displayed on the website.

If you're worried your teen has a need for speed, the GPS system can be set so that it will call your cellphone if it notices your car going over the speed limit.

"What you can do is you can set the parameter of the speed to say 60 kilometres or 100 kilometres, or whatever you deem to be appropriate for your child to drive. And if he goes over that speed limit, it will alert your cellphone or it will alert your computer," Mellor explains.

"So if you want your child to drive 80 kilometres an hour, and he drives 85 kilometres an hour for more than seven seconds, guess what: he's busted."

Mellor hopes the system will cut down on the number of teen drag racing deaths.

"It's no news to anybody that there's been a real problem with street racing, especially here in Vancouver, and I know in other centres in Canada. We've got a lot of people who come in and take advantage of our systems and bring their kids here and buy them cars and then they head back home.

"What's happening is their kids are being kids. They're driving down the road at crazy speeds and unfortunately causing tragedies. This way, we have opportunity for a parent to actually monitor how they're driving."

The third feature of the system is the ability to remotely disable the vehicle. Mellor says this would likely be used by parents as a last resort.

If parents find that their children are refusing to slow down, they can disable the car by clicking a button that says "Disable".

"It shuts the starter off to the car, so when your child actually stops somewhere, he just can't start it again," Mellor explains.

Mellor says he knows that a lot of young drivers won't like that feature, complaining that their parents are trying to control their life. But Mellor insists the system isn't about control.

"All we're trying to do is fight peer pressure. We're not trying to get you to spy on your children. We're trying to make the roads a safer place to be."

The LockDown system is available at selected car dealerships. Further information is available on the LockDown Systems [url=\"http://www.lockdownsystems.com/\"][u]website[/u][/url].